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November 10, 2021"Share a saint story"Growing up, I had always heard about “Name Days,” and my mother would even get celebratory phone calls on July 26 — her name day. In Poland, where my mother lived until she was nine, Name Days are celebrated on the feast day of the saint who shares your name. Since this is a part of my cultural background, I decided to learn more about St. Julia of Corsica (my name saint) whose feast day is May 22.
St. Julia of Corsica was a devout woman, who was so dedicated to her faith that even in the face of death, she stood by it. During her life, she was taken from her family and sold into slavery, but still persevered in life without complaint and took time to pray and read about her faith. Sometimes, we look at life with more pessimism, or at least I do, and choose to complain and make excuses for not spending time with the Lord but seeing how St. Julia chose to look at her life with optimism and love in such difficult circumstances, I see how important it is to do the same. She died a martyr for her faith and seeing an example of this kind of real dedication to the Catholic faith is inspiring, as any of us can also strive to have this kind of faith and outlook on our lives.
Although I have not prayed many novenas before, I had one experience that will stick with me. Last year, I was asked to pray a novena (a series of nine days of prayer) with a friend of mine, which I had never done before. A few of us decided to pray for the intercession of St. Dymphna, the patron saint of mental health. This experience was all new to me, and we prayed together through FaceTime due to convenience, but also because of the separation we all experienced due to COVID-19 and the restrictions in place.
A lot of people have struggled with mental health throughout this pandemic, and the separation and the anxieties that have been brought up or exacerbated due to the pandemic made praying this novena that much more important. I have personally struggled with mental health, as have many of my friends. Being able to pray for the intercession of St. Dymphna, a saint who saw the realities of mental health in her father at such a young age, was a wonderful experience to have shared even over FaceTime during a time when so many were struggling.
I think that saints truly show us examples of how we can strive to be holy and grow in our relationship with God. They remind us of the power of prayer, whether through their own dedication to their faith in their life or through the opportunity we have to ask for their constant intercession. They were human beings with all sorts of backgrounds and struggles just like us, yet they made conscious efforts to strive towards holiness and remain strong in their faith, which is a commitment that we can choose to renew every day.
My name is Julia Olkin and I am a third-year from Reston, Virginia. A fun fact about me is that I’m actually a dual citizen (U.S. and Poland)
